IWS Group Announces Acquisition of Anco Storage Equipment Ltd

We’re very excited to announce our parent company, IWS Group, has acquired Anco Storage Equipment Ltd, the largest trade-only supplier of storage solutions in the UK.

Established in 1991 in West Sussex, Anco has gained an enviable reputation for quality and service at a competitive price. Exclusively through its trade-only distribution channel, Anco offers an extensive range of over 7,000 variations of products, covering all kinds of applications from industrial racking, multi-tier projects and mezzanine flooring, to office archive storage and modular shelving. Anco stores over £3M worth of stock in their warehouse to facilitate quick turn-around times on orders.

What does this mean for Brandsafe and its Customers?

Anco and its wealth of storage solutions is the perfect complement to IWS Group’s growing portfolio of innovative industrial workspace brands. This acquisition will no doubt further strengthen our product offering, resource, infrastructure, and capability, to provide our customers and partners with a complete warehouse lifecycle solution. In particular, for Brandsafe customers, it not only enhances our range offering, but provides a whole new category of products and services available to you.

Strengthening the IWS Group Portfolio

IWS Group is a rapidly growing family of market-leading product brands and service companies which provide essential supplies and services to the warehouse and logistics, material handling, and industrial sectors.

The group portfolio currently includes Beaverswood, Brandsafe, Rack Group, and now Anco.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Anco to the IWS family,” said Jeroen van den Berge, CEO of IWS Group, “Anco’s wealth of storage solutions, its team of specialists and its long history of building strong partnerships with its distributor network are the perfect complement to our growing portfolio of innovative industrial workspace brands. Our vision is to be the partner of choice for essential products & services throughout the lifecycle of an industrial building, and this acquisition is a natural progression towards this end.”

Visit: www.iws.group

About Beaverswood

Beaverswood manufactures innovative products that improve the efficiency, safety, and sustainability of the physical workspace. The Beaverswood range of warehouse safety and management products includes labelling and signage, recycling solutions, identification products and visual communication solutions.

Visit: www.beaverswood.co.uk

About Rack Group

Rack Group is the UK’s leading provider of warehouse racking solutions that focus on prolonging the life and safety of racking. These solutions, which include racking inspection; repair; maintenance and training, are provided to many of the biggest household names across the UK. Its range of racking protection includes the market leading brand Rack Armour.

Visit: www.therackgroup.com

If you have any questions about IWS Group’s range of products and services, please feel free to contact us.

Creating or updating your impact protection strategy

What to use when Armco Barriers can’t be installed

Traffic management in workplaces is not simply about compliance with H&S rules. Some vehicle safety measures also help you to save on car repair bills with simple and cheap solutions.

It’s easy to think that only organisations dealing with HGVs and LGVs need to regularly review their private roads, car parks and vehicle exits/entrances. However, all workplaces need to source and install products that save on car repair bills with simple and cheap solutions.

That’s because you are likely to have a staff or visitor cars – or sales vehicles, for instance – moving around your premises. Plus, no one wants the embarrassment of an important customer reporting dented bodywork!

Being really thorough in the way you protect vehicles from damage serves another purpose too. It avoids business interruption if a car your organisation depends on is out of action to fix avoidable damage.

HSE rules on preventing vehicle damage

Before looking at the products you can buy to protect cars transiting your site, let’s explore the legal responsibilities you have to avoid accidents and incidents, using sensible traffic management systems.

Clearly, both off and on-road vehicles can do a lot of damage if they hit a pedestrian, even at low speeds. Also, collisions with other vehicles or workplace structures put drivers at risk. The simple act of manoeuvring into a parking space can be problematic in many environments.

For this reason, the Health & Safety Executive issued strict guidelines for workplace transport, including rules on parking safely on private and public sector sites.

Compliance hinges on a thorough risk assessment. This should especially focus on areas where vehicles and pedestrians are both on the move and key spaces where cars tend to carry out manoeuvres such as reversing.

Of course, there are also clear rules on limiting speed on commercial premises and the things you need to do to maintain your car park properly.

Simple, cheap measures to save on car repair bills

Prevention is always better than the cure, and that certainly applies if you want to stay compliant with workplace traffic management regulations and find ways to save on car repair bills with simple and cheap solutions.

Road and parking maintenance

The foundations of avoiding vehicle damage around your workplace are literally the foundations of your outside area! For instance, is the ground level, with good drainage? Relocating parking to firmer ground with less risk of wheels slipping could be a practical way to limit accidents and incidents.

Well mapped traffic flow and parking

This leads to the wisdom of reviewing how vehicles transit your site, and the spaces set aside for visitor and staff parking for example. Has it been strategically managed, or has it evolved over time?

You may want to refresh how vehicles move on-site and where they park if your business has become busier too.

Signage and lighting

These are both important measures in maintaining site safety and avoiding damage to vehicles.

There are many inexpensive traffic management signs you can buy to give drivers clear directions and safety information. As well as vital signs to segregate vehicles and pedestrians.

This also requires you to install good site lighting for darker or shorter days. Drivers need to be able to see signs, people, structures and road edges with ease. Do you also need hi-vis barriers along roadways and around car parks?

Staff and visitor guidance

Make your rules on safe parking and transit clear, and strictly enforced. This means training staff on your traffic management protocols and issuing pre-arrival instructions for site visitors.

Buy car wheel stops

This truly is a cheap but effective way to avoid vehicle damage! You simply need to buy and install car wheel stops to keep vehicles parked safely.

Clearly, these need to be clear to see! Our quality car wheel stops are designed to be robust, and quick to install, but also unmissable for both drivers and pedestrians.

Commercial site speed bumps

They are not always popular, but well-made speed bumps are a highly effective way to maintain site safety.

Find a supplier of quality domestic speed bumps suitable for cars, rather than heavy-duty traffic calming measures for lorries. You don’t want your speed bump to present a risk, rather than a way to avoid car damage.

We sell speed bump kits for cars (made from recycled truck tyres) that are versatile, low-cost, high quality and easy to install.

Help with traffic management measures

If you have a complex site or heavy traffic use to manage, it can be hard to know which safety products are best, and where to install them. This is also true if the layout of your roads, car parks, yards and loading bays is out of date or constantly changing.

Brandsafe would be pleased to provide a free survey to map out measures that improve your site safety and which save on business car repair bills.